Patterned Paper - Guest Designing for Simon Says Stamp

I'm thrilled to be back in the Designer Spotlight for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this month. It's always an honour to be invited, and to create alongside the amazing design team.  I had a wonderful time creating this collage quartet with Patterned Paper.

Yes, for this week's challenge, my first in the spotlight, the theme is Patterned Paper, with a focus on Stamperia products.  As always, the designers in the regular team have created wonders, so do check out their work.

I had a glorious time creating this quartet of panels with Stamperia rice papers in the background and lots of Tim Holtz goodies layered over the top.

The colours in the rice papers - which come from Stamperia's Around the World A6 Rice Paper Pack - really dictated everything that came afterwards, but since blues and browns are probably my favourite place to play that was fine by me!  I love the vintage style and distressed detailing on the rice papers. 

I glued them onto a piece of A4 card (all four papers fitted on one sheet), cut them into their individual panels and added a bit more distressing around the edges with the blade of my scissors.

I can never resist Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Paper Dolls when I'm collaging - they have such character and so many stories to tell.  And combined with the maps imagery in the rice papers, the gentlemen who started to gather on my desk turned out to be a determined and adventurous lot.

Each of the chaps has a photographic frame to perch or lean on - they're from the Idea-ology Photo Studio collection of frames and panels - and some Paper Strips provide additional structure or architecture for the rest of the collage elements. I love how they spill over the edges of the panels, creating a dynamic energy of expansion and exploration.

I've always loved the Gauge Dials - whether you put them in the metal frames designed for them or keep them just as they are, as I've done here.  There are compasses and speedometers and altimeters... all perfect to measure distance, direction, speed, height, and fuel reserves throughout the journeys these adventurers are going to be undertaking.

And of course the Postmarked postage stamps reflect the letters and telegrams they will be sending back to their nearest and dearest to assure them they are still alive and well, and enjoying their travels.

The other ephemera include some of my much loved Snippets Number Strips (always on my desk along with the Curator labels, as I have to have them near at hand!).

There are additional elements from the Memoir Ephemera Pack on a couple of the panels.  And where would I be without the wonderful Small Talk word stickers to let my Paper Dolls speak for themselves?!

Do hop over to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge post to see the fabulous Patterned Paper offerings from the team, and for all the details about how to enter your own Patterned Paper projects.

Remember, as always, there's a randomly drawn $25 voucher to be won so that you can go shopping at Simon Says Stamp, as well as the honour of potentially being spotlit by one of the design team, with the special badge to go along with that spotlight moment.

I hope my adventurous gentlemen will inspire you to have a play.  We can't wait to see what you create... have a fabulous papery patterned week, everyone!

I look forward to seeing you next Monday for some more Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge fun. Thanks so much for stopping by today and happy crafting, all!

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.
Susan Sontag

A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves, in finding themselves.
André Gide

Useful or Beautiful

Hello all!  It's so long since I've been here that I've almost forgotten how to write a blogpost!  My apologies for the long silence, both here at Words and Pictures and in terms of visiting... it's been a busy old time lately.  I've got a quieter time coming up, so hope to do some catching up with the crafting world now.

I simply couldn't miss Celebration Time over at A Vintage Journey today, though - it's a challenge celebrating our our sixth birthday.  Can you believe it?   Your projects don't have to be all about birthdays or big events.  Our host, the fabulous Brenda, also wants to know what you are celebrating in your crafting and creativity at the moment.

Well, I'm just celebrating being back at my craft desk by playing with lots of my favourite things... crackle, rusty wire, tiny houses and, of course, some words.  There are lots of glorious projects to enjoy from my fellow Creative Guides.  Do check out all the things they are celebrating, and we hope you'll share with us what you're celebrating this month.







You can see the rusty wire, words and tiny houses in that main picture, but maybe not the crackle, so this photo is just to prove that's in the mix too!













It all started with this gorgeous paper from the new Stamperia Forest collection.  It reminded me a bit of a William Morris print...














... so I thought it would be perfect to combine it with one of the most famous quotes on my new House & Home collection for PaperArtsy on some of Tim Holtz's Tiny Houses.













The words are stamped in Peat Moss Archival ink, which turned out to be a perfect match for the soft green of the leaves.













Apart from a splatter of paint which unhelpfully turned the word 'house' into the word 'horse'...














... I really love how the combination of words and pictures (and 3D objects) works.














And around the back of the tiniest house, you even get a reminder of whose words they are...













The roofs are cut out of corrugated cardboard, and have had a random application of Ranger Opaque crackle paste.  Over that, I blended Walnut Stain Distress Ink to highlight the cracks and darken the edges.
















I also blended the Walnut Stain ink onto the corners of the houses to give them a nice distressed look.  You can see the difference it makes from the clean cut look of the un-inked papers...













... to the inked edges with a vintage weathered appearance.














I added some metal accents - cogs are definitely useful things, so they work as a contrast to the beauty of the raspberry vines.















And this Muse Token seemed appropriate to go with the words.













And of course the other main metal accent is my much-loved rusty wire, twisted and twined around the centres of the houses.















Around the foot of the houses, I glued delicate strands of green moss to "ground" the houses.








As it turned out, when I was photographing these on the mossy railway sleeper in the garden, you can hardly tell the moss is there!

But there's another thing to celebrate here... the arrival of the symptoms of spring - both in the greenery (look at those lovely delicate grassy stems) and the weather which allowed me to get outside for half an hour!

I really like that you can just turn the houses around if you decide you'd like to get a proper look at those lovely papers without anything much getting in the way!

















I hope you like these tiny houses as much as I do.  They were certainly a lovely way to try to get my creative energy flowing again at the craft desk.















It's always tricky coming back from a consuming rehearsal process and getting back into the swing of crafty things.
















But with A Vintage Journey's sixth birthday to celebrate, I had the nudge I needed to get my fingers messy again.

Having some of my new word stamps to inspire me was also really helpful... the quotes always trigger ideas for me.

In fact, I knew even when I was collecting the House & Home quotes that I wanted to add them to some houses.  I'm guessing it won't be the last time you see some House & Home words on some little houses!

We hope you'll come and celebrate with us this month at A Vintage Journey.  Remember, your projects can be about celebrating your own creative journey - not just birthday or anniversary celebrations.  We can't wait to see what you are celebrating.










Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'm very much looking forward to doing some visiting over the next week to catch up with all of you.

Celebrate your journey of life.
Laila Gifty Akita

People of our time are losing the power of celebration.  Instead of celebrating we seek to be amused or entertained.  Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state - it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle...  Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention to the transcendent meaning of one's actions.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

I'd like to join in with the Anything Mixed Media Goes theme at Bleeding Art Challenge
I'd also like to share them at the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog where it's also Anything Mixed Media Goes
At More Mixed Media it's Anything Goes with an optional twist of Green